Hanger.



L. F. BOWERS.

' HANGER. I

APPHCATION man JULY 19, I915.

:11 5%, Patented Jl n ne 12, 1917.

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LIONEL IE. BowEns, OF COLUMBIA, PENNSYLVANIA, .ASSIGNOR 'ro. coLU BIaivIaNU- FACTURING COMPANY, on COLUMBIA, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF PENN- SYLVANIA.

HANGER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 12, 191?.

Application filed July 19, 1915. Serial No. 40,676.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LIONEL F. Bowers, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Columbia, in the county of Lancaster and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Hangers, of which the following is a. specification.

I have devised an improvement in drying apparatus commonly used in cleaning estab- .lishments such as laundrics; and my invention relates particularly to hangers which carry clothes, after the same have been washed, through a suitable chamber to be dried. My primary object is to provide a hanger for washed clothing which comprises relatively moving gripping members so arranged that they can be operated with the greatest ease and readiness, to hold the clothes tightly enough to obviate all likelihood of the same being dropped or being blown from the hanger, or otherwise displaced; and this without any undue strain on any of the parts of which the hanger is composed.

The above and other objects and advantages of my invention are set forth in the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings. The latter, however, are intended to illustrate but one embodiment of my invention, and I desire to reserve the right to utilize the principle of my. improvement in other forms and constructions which come within the general meaning of the terms in which the claims appended hereto are expressed. In other words, the differences in the phrasing of the claims at the end of this specification are meant to cover differences in structural details; provided such details and alterations in the shape, size and relative location of the parts of my hanger are within the scope and spirit of my invention as the claims define the same. On said drawings:

Figure 1 is a front elevation of my improved hanger.

Fig. 2 is an end view of the same; and, Fig. 3 is a section taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

The same numerals of reference are used to indicate the same parts on all the views.

In the particular description of the drawings I employ the numeral 1 to indicate the frame or body of my hanger; this element 1 being in the form of an inverted yoke, the outer ends of Whose arms are inclined to ward each other. The hanger also comprises gripping members in the form of levers 2, one of which is associated with each of the arms of the body 1; these levers extending in opposite directions and being in alinement, with their adjacent ends superposed and perforated to enable them to be pivotally secured between a pair of lugs 3. The lugs 3 are in line with the shank or stem of the frame 1, and the lovers 2 extend past the arms of the yoke-shaped body carrying them and have their outer ends located a considerable distance beyond these arms. At its lower extremity the frame 1 presents a pair of flat surfaces 4:, which cooperate with curved surfaces 5 on elements secured to downward extending projections 6 on the levers; the surfaces 1 and 5 serving to grip the clothes to be dried between them and hold them firmly in place. The shank of the yoke-shaped body 1 is shown at 7 It extends vertically upward and is secured to a conveyer chain. In practice the hanger is suspended from the chain in transverse position and supports one or more articles of clothing as it is moved through the drying chamber. In this chamber the clothes are subjected to a blast of air to remove the moisture in them and then they are released simply by causing the outer ends of the levers 2 to be lifted; this operation separating the gripping surfaces d and 5 and allowing the clothes to be removed.

The arms of the body of the hanger 1 are indicated by the numeral 8; they extend outward and are curved downward and inward and are preferably provided with slots 9 in which the levers 2 are free to move. The lateral projections 6 on the levers 2 are widened in a plane perpendicular to that of the frame 1 in order to provide flat portions against which blocks 10, having rounded outer faces constituting the surfaces 5, can be secured; for example as by bolts or screws. The extremities of the arms 8 are also flattened to receive similar blocks 11, having flat faces presenting the surfaces 4 above mentioned. The bolt or pin which pivots the levers 2 between the lugs 3 is indicated by the numeral 12.

Owing to the rounded character of the surfaces 5 these surfaces engage with the adjacent surfaces 4 on each side of the hanger at practically a single point. From the structural relation of the parts shown in Fig. 1 it will be apparent that the axis of the pivot point 12 is higher than these points of contact; and owing to the inclination of the surfaces 1 a perpendicular to the surfaces 4c at the center thereof will pass over and above the bolt 12. Such perpendiculars are indicated by the broken lines AB. Likewise a perpendicular to either surface t at the point of contact with the surface 5 will pass over and above the pin 12; although the last named perpendicular, indicated by the broken lines CD in Fig. 1,"will be below the perpendicular AB in each case. The points of contact between the surfaces 4: and 5 are indicated by P;

and it willbe seen that when either lever 2 is raised this point will describe an arc of a circle around the pin 12 as a center.

' The circular arc in each instance will intersmall movement of the adjacent gripping lever 2. Furthermore, when an article of clothing is held between the gripping surfaces 4 and 5 the blocks or elements 10 and 11 do not exert a direct closing or crushing action against the folds of the garment or the like;

instead the thrustof the surfaces 5 is downward for the most part, and the piece of clothing is merely held by being wedged in the tapering space between the flat surfaces 4; and the curved surfaces 5, as will be readily understood; hence the clothing may be very tightly and firmly held without any danger of crushing the fibers of the material or otherwise injuring the same.

It will be noted that the surface 4, block 11, is flush with the adjacent portion of the arms 8 as seen in Fig. 1. By this construc tion any likelihood of the cloth catching on a projecting portion of the arm 8 is eliminated.

The levers 2 are not perfectly straight,

but are so shaped that they extend upward from the pivot pin 12 toward the arms 8 and then horizontally outward; they can be lifted until their upper edges contact with the inner ends of the slots 9 indicated by the broken lines 13 in Fig. 1. I also prefer to extend the flattened portions of the projections 6, to which the blocks 10 are fastened, so as to provide curved extremities which extend toward each other. These curved extremities present convex surfaces downward and greatly facilitate the quick insertion ofa piece of cloth into the hanger to be carried into the chamber where it is to be driedyin fact to load the hanger it is only necessary to seize the article to be dried and push it up against the lower convex surface of the extremity 14; exerting suflicient pressure against the article to lift the lever 2, so as to separate the surfaces 4 and 5 and enable the article of clothing to be pushed into position to be gripped between thesurfaces when the lever 2 is allowed to drop. The clothing is'therefore held tightly by the members or levers 2 in conjunction with the arms 8, comprising the cooperating gripping surfaces and there is very little strain on the pivot 12 or any other'parts of my hanger. I prefer to cast thehanger in one piece, but obviously I may make the same by other methods, such as stamping it from sheet metal if desired. The hanger comprises but few parts, and, as will be under stood from the above description, is very simple and easy to operate in practice.

Having described my invention what I believe to be. new and desire to secure and protect by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a hanger, the combination of an arm having a downward extending extremity providing an inclined plane surface, a gripping lever pivotally mounted below said arm and having a rounded surface to make contact with the first surface, and a flattened portion below the lever curving away from the second namedsurface toward the pivoted end of the lever, said portion facilitating the separation of said surfaces when the article is to be inserted between them to be supported by the hanger.

2. A hanger comprising a normally horizontal arm, lever pivotally mounted adjacent one end of said arm and below the same, the other end of said arm extending downward and being inclined toward the pivoted end of the lever, the other'enol of the lever extending beyond the inclined end of said arm, said inclined end comprising a plane inclined surface, and a projection carried by the lever presenting a'rounded surface to make contact with the first named surface, the extremity of the projection being fiattened and curved away from the inclined end of the arm toward the pivoted end of the lever.

3. A hanger comprising a body in the form of an inverted yoke, the arms ofwhich incline toward each other at their extremities, a pair of perforated lugs located centrally of said yoke between said arms, a pair of levers having their ends pivotally mounted between said lugs and extending in opposite directions beyond said arms and above the lower ends thereof, said arms each presenting at their lower ends an inclined plane surface to said levers, and each of said levers having a projection presenting rounded surfaces to make contact With the first surfaces will pass above the pivoted ends of 10 surfaces, said projections having their outer the levers.

ends broadened and curved away from the Signed at Columbia in the county of Lanadjacent ends of the arms toward said lugs, caster and State of Pennsylvania this fifth the pivoted ends of said levers being located day of May A. D. 1915.

above the points of contact between said sur- LIONEL F. BOWERS. faces, and the inclination of said plane sur- Witnesses:

faces being such that perpendiculars thereto E. J. UPDEGRAFF,

at the points of contact With the rounded F. H. \VEIGEL.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

